N.J. fugitive was working for homeland security office in Georgia, authorities say

Photo courtesy of the Essex County Prosecutor's OfficeTahaya Buchanan A New Jersey fugitive wanted on insurance fraud charges since 2007 was working for the immigration division of the Department of Homeland Security in Georgia, despite a nation-wide alert for her arrest, Essex County prosecutors said today.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Atlanta was unaware that Tahaya Buchanan, 39, formerly of Newark, was being sought on a 2007 indictment on charges she staged the theft of her Range Rover in Newark for an insurance pay-out, said Paul Loriquet of the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office.

He said the USCIS continued to remain unaware of the criminal case after Buchanan was arrested on July 9 in DeKalb County, Georgia, by a traffic cop who noticed a warrant for her arrest was issued in December 2007 by a New Jersey judge and posted a month later on the National Crime Information Center.

Today, Buchanan’s supervisors at the CIS office in Atlanta said they did not know about the criminal charges, despite the fact Buchanan remained in a Georgia jail for a week after her arrest. On Monday, she pleaded guilty to a one charge of insurance fraud for which she faces three months of probation.

"It’s amazing they couldn’t find her. Good Lord," said Kevin Kerns, the office chief of staff at USCIS where Buchanan still works as an analyst.

Ana Santiago, a spokeswoman for the USCIS, said they are still checking into the case and did not have information available as to whether the office regularly checks its employee list against national criminal warrants.

"The USCIS is looking into this matter. USCIS has zero tolerance for any type of employee misconduct or criminal activity," she added.

Assistant Essex County Prosecutor Michael Morris said his detectives believe Buchanan was working for Homeland Security while still living in New Jersey in 2007, and she may have transferred to the Georgia office while under investigation. But Morris said his office is baffled why the warrant for her arrest, placed on a national alert system, did not prompt Homeland Security to notice that one of its employees was wanted on a criminal warrant.

"We found it surprising, alarming that an employee of the Department of Homeland Security is a fraudster, and we do not understand how she could have remained employed there with an open criminal warrant for her arrest remaining on the interstate system without being discovered," said Morris.

Buchanan was indicted in November 2007 on a charge of second-degree insurance fraud. A Superior Court judge in Newark issued a warrant for her arrest a month later when she failed to appear for a court hearing. The warrant was entered on the NCIC system on Jan. 8, 2008, notifying law enforcement agencies nationwide she was a fugitive, said Loriquet.

Buchanan admitted on Monday that she falsely reported her car stolen in March 2005 and filed an insurance claim. A month after the report, the Range Rover was found by police in an Irvington garage owned by Buchanan’s aunt after the garage caught fire, said Morris. Buchanan’s insurance company launched a probe, eventually denied her insurance claim and a criminal probe was later opened.